England 0 Germany 1

At least one Chelsea man is happy tonight, sadly for England, it isn't Ashley Cole.Andre Schurrle may have being on the Wembley pitch for a matter of eight minutes but his side recorded yet another victory over the Three Lions.A goal from Per Mertesacker, six minutes before the half-time break did for England as they went down at home for successive games, the first time since 1977 when Wales and Scotland, those world giants of football won at the old stadium.Cole, restored to the starting line-up after an indifferent start for Chelsea, had an excellent game and is certainly rising to the pressure heaped upon him at international level from Leighton Baines.But the Chelsea man was replaced on 52 minutes by Arsenal's Kieran Gibbs. It was surely enough to suggest that Cole is far from a spent force at the very highest level.

England were poor, Germany only slightly better. But the damning fact is that stand-in German goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller did not have a save to make.The only time his goal was seriously threatened was from the boot of Andros Townsend who rattled the foot of his right post.The Spurs wide man was easily the best England man on show.

Yet the Three Lions made a confident start, while not putting German goalkeeper Roman Weidenfeller under any pressure, they kept possession much better than their previous outing against Chile on Friday.Andros Townsend, Spurs' nippy winger proved to be the brightest spark, but did himself no favours when on 14 minutes he went and tumbled over in the German penalty area after good set-up play from Southampton's Adam Lallana.Referee Stephane Lannoy, rightly told the player to get up.Wayne Rooney had the actual first effort in goal on 20 minutes, but he was stretching backwards from cross from Tom Cleverley and could only direct the ball inches over Weidenfeller's crossbar.Following sustained pressure from England, Steven Gerrard tried his luck from long-range, but that too sailed high and wide of the German goal.From a deep Gerrard corner on 31 minutes, Jagielka attempted to screw the ball back with a header at the far post but mistimed his jump slightly and instead just helped the ball out for a goal kick.Germany's first attack of note came with eight minutes of the half to go when a long run by Lar Bender was intercepted by Chris Smalling.From the result corner Joe Hart produced a wonder save but seconds later from a second corner, Arsenal's Per Mertesacker rose unchallenged in the penalty area and plonked a perfect header past Hart to put the visitors 1-0 up.It was a goal against the run of play, but nevertheless, England switched off at the back and were punished.A zipper of a 25-yard strike from Gerrard with seconds of the half remaining, skimmed the top netting the German goal.German boss Joachim Low made two half-time substitutions, bringing on Mats Hummels and Marcell Jansen for Jerome Boateng and Marcel Schmelzer respectively.England restarted with the same 11.Mario Gotze showed wonderful composure and speed when his cut through the England defence before setting up Marco Reus, but Hart produced another fine save to deny the visitors a second goal three minutes into the second half.An Ashley Cole inspired run on the left almost allowed Lallana to nip in but he was tackled at the last moment.A raft of substitutes followed.That was also the last piece of action for Cole as he was replaced by Arsenal's Kieran Gibbs on 52 minutes.Steven Gerrard was then taken off, replaced by Jordan Henderson on 56 minutes with Sydney Sam coming on for Germany, replacing Max Kruse.One man delighted to be on pitch was Townsend and he was desperately unlucky to see his fierce 20-yard left-footer rebound off Weiddnfeller's left upright on 56 minutes. Quite what was going through Hart's mind when he raced out of his area to try and clear a ball that was rightly destined for Smalling to clear.On 64 minutes the best of Hart was on show when his expertly dived to his right to parry away Reus's low right-foot drive.kruse should have put the game to bed on 68 minutes when a slick German passing move sliced through, once again the England Central dense only for the Borussia Munchengladbach man to loft the ball over Hart but also his crossbar.Wayne Rooney was next to have a seat on the bench as he was replaced by Everton's Ross Barkley -Hart taking the captain's armband as a result.Rickie Lambert entered the fray with 14 minutes to go, Lallana the man taken off.Smalling had a half chance from a deep Barkley cross but that went inches wide.Chelsea,s Andre Schurrle got an eight-minute run out at the expense of Reus.And the German was unlucky not to score with his first touch. A smart right-footer being blocked.Germany saw the game out in typical efficient style, England have a lot to think about before they can take next year's World Cup seriously.